This invention relates to portable electronic precipitators for removing airborne particulate materials from air or some other gaseous material. In another aspect, this invention relates to a portable electronic precipitator which is mounted on a movable cabinet means and having an adjustably supported flexible hose means for collecting contaminated air or other gaseous material from a concentrated source.
Electronic precipitators, such as two-stage electrostatic precipitators, have been widely used for removing suspended particulate materials from air and other gaseous streams. Such precipitators have been effectively utilized to remove airborne particulate materials, including solids and liquids such as smoke, oil mist, metal particles, dust particles, and the like, from air and inhabited structures.
There have been suggestions of "portable" electronic precipitators for removing undesired particles from air. However, most such "portable" precipitator mechanisms usually involve the installation of the precipitator in a semi-permanent fashion and structures such as by attaching the precipitator to a wall-mount bracket and the like. It is apparent that there is a need for some type of truly portable precipitator for removing particulate materials from air and the like. For example, in many industrial processes, there are certain operations that will intermittently discharge large amounts of harmful or undesirable particulate materials into the air. It would be extremely uneconomical to install electronic precipitators instructures and in locations where they are only intermittently used. For example, processes such as welding, grinding, and the like may take place at many different locations and at different times in a structure. It would be highly desirable to have some type of an electronic precipitator that could be moved from one location to the other to collect airborne particles, such as smoke, dust, metallic particles, oil mist, acid mist, and the like. This is especially true in view of the current trends in occupational safety and health requirements wherein great sums of money are being spent to improve the safety and environment considerations of industrial facilities. In fact, there are now many governmental regulations that require the elimination of discharge of dust, metal particles, acid mists, oil mists, and the like into the atmosphere from industrial operations. Additionally, there are very stringent limitations on the amounts of such airborne particles that can be present in one area where workers may come into contact with such airborne contaminants. As a result, elaborate filters, duct means and the like have been devised to remove particulate materials from the air or to redirect them away from areas where the workers would come in contact with them. Such elaborate filters, duct means, and blowers are highly expensive to install and to operate. With this in mind, it, of course, would be highly desirable to have some type of portable electronic precipitator apparatus that could be easily moved from one location to another to capture particulate materials from air and other gaseous mediums in a safe and effective way. It would be especially desirable to have some type of apparatus that could capture and remove particulate materials from a small and concentrated area, such as in the area of a welding operation, a spray paint operation, a grinding operation, or other type of industrial operation which produces particulate materials, suspended in a gaseous medium such as air.